Governent Organ Tries To Shame Company over Government Mandated Jobs Cuts

Omega Protein makes good on threat to cut jobs; but it doesn’t have to

...Omega Protein warned last year that catch limits on menhaden — a vital food source for a range of species — could result in lost jobs. The company has long touted the importance of the menhaden industry to the tiny coastal town of Reedville, where hundreds of people depend on the company for work.

Omega Protein cares so much about its storied history of menhaden fishing in Reedville that it spent $50,000 in 2010 to "save the stack" — a crumbling monument to a long-defunct fish processing plant that "lends the town an air of majesty," Omega Protein said.

I figure it was because it smelled so bad it was too expensive to hire someone to go in and demolish it.  And that "air of majesty" they're talking about?  That's the fish smell from the menhaden processing.

That same spirit of preservation will not be extended to its employees this fishing season, though.

In December, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission imposed a limit on Omega's operations for the first time, capping the total annual commercial catch at 170,800 metric tons, about 80 percent of the average harvest from the last three years.

The limit was considered necessary because menhaden stocks have plummeted in recent decades, at least in part because of overfishing. A bill to ensure that Virginia complies with ASMFC regulations made its way through the legislature and was signed into law by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. Now that the restrictions are official, Omega is ready to make good on its threat to cut jobs.

Omega spokesman Ben Landry has said the cap on the menhaden fishery will force the company to decommission one of its fishing vessels and fire between 25 and 37 workers. "The more the fishery has to cut back, the more footing you lose on really continuing to be a sustainable business there," he told the Newport News Daily Press.

Yep, I get that.  You can't continue to employ the same number of ships and people and continue to catch fish.  I believe that the number of menhaden being caught needs to be reduced to allow for menhaden's ecological function, and I accept that some jobs have to be lost to achieve this public good.  Does that make me a heartless bastard?  Very well then, I'm a heartless bastard.

Omega Protein wants the public to believe that it is a victim of an overreaching government. But a closer look at the facts show that the real victims are the company's employees.

If Omega executives truly wished to protect their employees, they could shift and reassign workers to save jobs...

This article comes from the Bay Journal, a "newspaper" or periodical that owes it's existence to it's role as the house organ for the various pieces of the federal government that think they own the Chesapeake Bay.  Don't believe me, look at their "About Us" page:

Publication is made possible through grants from the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office, the Campbell Foundation for the Environment, the Town Creek Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Chesapeake Bay Office, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, and by donations from individuals. View expressed in the Bay Journal do not necessarily reflect those of any governmental or grant-making organization.

I think you can take that last statement with a large grain of salt. They could say things unpopular with the government if they wanted to (they don't), but not for very long.

The federal government has just entered the sequester, where a cut back to a mere 1% annual growth rate is causing furloughs among federal employees, and cancer victims to lose treatment.  Certainly, they should understand that a 20% cut back in the amount of product a company is allowed to produce is going to produce job losses.